I've come to a conclusion: this movie was a subtle yet damning critique of the AIr Force and the F-104 in particular. It boldly declared: There is nothing interesting about joining the Air Force! These F-104s are a massive waste of taxpayer money!

I love it when Crow is talking about his computers' specs. I so remember those days when you could proudly tell everyone who'd listen that you had 32 megs of RAM .. which at the time seemed like enough to launch a satellite. Wonder what ever happened to my old Pentium II?? .. Dunno .. I don't miss it cos I have an awesome Mac Pro these days with 32 GIG's of RAM!!! And in 5 years that'll seem as lame as 32 megs seems today :P

I always feel incredibly filthy watching Crow and Tom reenact the refueling scene...even Tom does a little embarassed/aroused cough. I think the really atrocious movies often have the best segments and the riffin g has so much more room to get up and stretch its legs...one of my faves.

Oddly I actually enjoy this movie....it has a Jarmuschian feel to it....
I've always been know to enjoy "boring" movies....this one is terrible....but I've watched it without riffing and had an odd enjoyment :-/

This is a good episode to have on while you're doing something else... you don't have to see it all. I was surprised though when it seemed Mike was reading the letter too soon... the pilots had just left for Europe where the action was sure to happen to make for a dramatic ending...! I was genuinely surprised... what a boring ending. The music was great though... have a listen while you Photoshop!

Notice that the movie conveniently glances over the fact that the Lockheed F-104 "Starfighter" was an unreliable, problematic POS of a fighter with an abysmal safety record...let's face it MSTies, they were PRETTY damned lucky that these didn't just fall out of the sky while filming.

The congressman's voice gives me the willies. It's so smarmy. It reminds me of someone but I can't place it. It's sort of a nasal Jack Nicholson, but I think there's someone else it sounds like. Anyone?

This was the first MST3K I saw, it was on the tv in the dorm basement where I was waiting for my roommate to get done schlupping his date. I recall being a bit confused as to what was going on and falling asleep several times during the endless refueling scenes. Fortunately I was a little interested and later was trading bootleg music with a guy who also had MST3K tapes who hooked me up. I like it as a n episode, some sharp sharp riffs and the singing and such but there is so little to work with even the boys can't keep it from putting me to sleep in the third act.

Maybe I'm a bad person, but this is one of my favorites. The impotency jokes, the corn detassling, the crunchy hair, the huge horrifying faces. I love it all. Remember: "We're not here to admire this plane!"

The F-104 kinda sorta reminds me of the Bell X-1...actually, I think they featured it in The Right Stuff. The way the movie presented it, it was like Yeager sorta just showed up at a base, eyed the F-104, and asked Ridley "Hey Ridley? You got any beeman's?"...Beeman's being lichorice chewing gum...the idea was Yeager says, hey, got any? Ridley says yeah, think I do, then Yeager says loan me some. I'll pay yuh back later, and Ridley says fair enough...but nevermind right stuff subtext. Yeager broke the sound barrier in the X-1. The movie showed him scoffing recruiters for the mercury program, then later showed him looking at the moon wistfully. It then showed him taking the starfighter up, and up, and up further. He took it up so far the intakes couldn't breath anymore, and apparently the starfighter has something to deal with that, which Yeager switched on...I don't recall what went wrong precisely, but something did, and eventually Yeager had to bail out. The bail out involved a fire inside his helmet...actually, this may also have to do with right stuff subtext, on reflection...

This wasn't the worst movie ever (that would be Beast of Yucca Flats) but this one wasn't entertaining in its badness, it was just bad with no entertainment value whatsoever. Not even Mike and the Bots could save it.

...and, incidentally, "cordite" is the name given to a series of smokeless gun powders starting with a formulation invented in the UK near the end of the 19th century, beginning with attempts to balance nitrocellulose with nitroglycerin

This was always my second least favorite MST3K episode....However, I just re-watched what was my very least favorite episode: San Francisco International. Surprisingly, I loved it! So I figured it was only fair to give this one another shot, too....Perhaps I'll surprise myself again! :)

PS: It's not that I ever thought either of these episodes was "bad"--the films just seemed too dull to effectively riff on....there are only so many jokes one can make about how boring something is.

Have you ever known one of those guys who is super into flying and just believes that airplanes are just so intrinsically fascinating that he will tell you the model of every plane that passes by, no matter now little it means to you? This movie must have been made by such a person.

"Cowboy Mike's own original red hot Ricocheeeee- *pew pew pew* -eeeey barbecue sauce!"
I love this skit, despite the fact that I have no idea what it has to do with the movie. Or maybe, because of that.